Victims aged four to 75: Norway community rocked by 150+ sexual assault cases spanning 60 years

'A small Norwegian town above the Arctic Circle has witnessed at least 151 cases of sexual assault since 1953, police revealed. Victims ranged between four and 75 years old, and mostly belonged to the indigenous Sami community.

All the incidents took place in the Tysfjord municipality in Norway, with a population of less than 2,000 residents. The police probe started after a report in the local VG newspaper in 2016.

The oldest case dates back to 1953 and the most recent took place in August 2017, police said, adding that they dropped 106 cases in November this year because too much time had passed. Two people have been charged with a total of 10 assaults, and about 30 cases are still under investigation.

“Many of these abuses have been going on for a long time. Several assault cases started when the victims were very young. The youngest was four years when the abuse began,” police attorney Oyvind Rengard said at a press conference, as cited by Norwegian media on Tuesday.

In total, 92 people, including three women, are suspects, police said. Nearly 70 percent of the victims and the suspects belong to the indigenous Sami community in Tysfjord. The investigation showed that many of them are affiliated with the Laestadianism Church, a conservative Lutheran revival movement that originated in Lapland in the 19th century.'